% to 47% among likely voters. a look at other national polls confirmit'srazortight, maybeeven a mirror image of the 2004 showdown between president bush and senator john kerry. we see some movement towards the president. obama leads by seven points, almost four in ten. and he leads by four points in the battleground states, again, though, within the margin of error. the president is holding on to an eight-point advantage among women and that's slightly higher than romney's edge among men. the president's job rating sits at 49%. take a look at these numbers. 67% of likely voters approve of his handling of hurricane sandy. haven't seen numbers like that for this president on a single event, of course, going back to bin laden. and we may be seeing a sandy effect in other numbers. when voters are asked which candidate has better leadership qualities, the president -- more now pick the president. two weeks ago mitt romney led in that question, 44% to 40%. this doesn't mean romney doesn't have some things going for him. he's winning independents, the group the president won in 2008. romney l

are four important electoral votes because this race issorazortight, alex.president obama won this state in 2008 and hasn't seen some of the same effects of the economic downturn as other states in fact the unemployment rate here is at 5.7%. it's far below the national average. but of course mitt romney has a home in this state. he was governor of neighboring massachusetts. so he carries a lot of weight here in this state as well. i expect from president obama takes the podium later on this afternoon you will hear him continue his message to middle class voters trying to make the case that he is the candidate to best preserve the interests of middle class voters and also to sort of reiterate what you heard in that commercial that you ran a little bit earlier on which is that mitt romney has sort of shifted some of his opinions, moved further to the middle to try and shore up votes. that's one of president obama's key messages right now. alex, i can tell you this race here in new hampshire is essentially in a deadlock with the president holding onto a narrow lead. >> i'll tell